


Plucked Wings

by solarphoenix



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, demetri just misses his best friend, hawk is emotionally constipated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:40:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28594113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarphoenix/pseuds/solarphoenix
Summary: Eli and Demetri have a much-needed reconciliation after the Christmas fight. Set after the events of the Miyagi-Do invasion.
Relationships: Demetri (Cobra Kai) & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Demetri (Cobra Kai)/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Comments: 10
Kudos: 159





	Plucked Wings

The shards of glass from the broken picture frame crunched softly as Demetri stepped over them on the way to the door of the dojo. He hadn’t been here to stop the fight between Sam and Tory when it took place but he’d been here when it ended. Miyagi-Do dojo looked like it had been trashed (again) and the damage at the house had been even worse. Demetri felt guilty about that until he remembered the reason why the place had been trashed in the first place.

As Miguel began to comfort Sam, Demetri watched the retreating backs of the Cobra Kai students. All but one of them had retreated like serpents in the grass. Demetri didn’t trust them not to try to strike again, but as far as he could tell, the brawl was over… for tonight. 

Demetri took a moment to look at the Cobra Kai student who had stayed with them. Hawk-- Eli-- lingered somewhat awkwardly by the door, peering out at the yard with his hands jammed in the pockets of his sweatpants. He looked uncomfortable and out of place, but nothing had been more out of place than the way that Eli had helped him during the fight. When Demetri saw his former best friend charging at him with his teeth bared, he thought for sure that he was going to be a goner. The script had been flipped (again) when Eli decided instead to fight at his side. 

It was all incredibly confusing, and Demetri only partially blamed that on the mild concussion he was sure that he had. Hawk had entered the LaRusso residence as an enemy, but now… somehow, for some reason, he was on their side. 

“They’re gone,” Eli (to Demetri, he would always be Eli) said gruffly, bracing one of his hands on the door. “All of them. They’ve gone.”

Demetri peered outside as well. The evening seemed peaceful and still, but part of him, the reluctant part of him, the part of him that remembered crying out in agony as Hawk broke his arm, wasn’t sure he trusted it. Sam seemed to think the same, as she stepped forward and narrowed her eyes. He had half a mind to step between them before Hawk could kick her in the face, but Eli looked, if anything, almost complacent.

“Is this another one of your dumb ambush tactics? To get us to let our guards down before your little _friends_ come back for more?”

Eli’s eyes widened slightly. Demetri watched as his friend(?) took a small step forward, raising his chin in defiance.

“No, it’s not anything like that. If anything, you should be thanking me. Demetri would have been toast if it wasn’t for me. I’m done with Cobra Kai. Besides… Eagle Fang sort of fits with the whole aesthetic I’m going for, you know?” He smirked slightly, and Demetri was suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to smack the smug look off of his face.

“Sam does have a point,” he began. He tried to ignore the way that Eli’s face crumpled into an almost betrayed frown. “I mean… You haven’t exactly been a saint before all of this. You stole the money--” (He could only watch as Eli stole a perturbed glance in Miguel’s direction) “--You _broke_ my _arm_ , you chased us around for _months_ \-- I mean, why are you with us in the first place? Because… because if you’re here just so you can let Cobra Kai get the upper hand on us again, I’ll--”

“That’s bullshit!” Eli snapped, rage flickering in his eyes. “I _saved_ your scrawny ass! If I hadn’t stepped in, your other arm would have gotten snapped. Why do you think I’d attack my own guys if I didn’t have a reason? I’m quitting Cobra Kai.” He glanced over at Miguel, who seemed to be contemplating all of this. “Miguel did it. I can too.”

Rage boiled in the pit of Demetri’s stomach, though he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because he was still fuelled by adrenaline. Maybe it was because Hawk (he still wasn’t going to call the asshole who’d tormented them for months Eli) had broken his arm and expected everything to vanish with one apology, or maybe it was because he wished it had happened sooner, but when Eli turned his expectant eyes on him, as though asking Demetri to confirm the events of the night, Demetri averted his gaze. 

Sam pressed her lips into a thin line as Demetri folded his arms. “We just want to know what changed your mind.” 

A muscle in Hawk’s jaw jumped slightly, and he took a sharp breath in through his nose. “Look, I’m not Cobra Kai anymore, alright? That should be all that matters.”

“I thought that you were Cobra Kai for life.” Demetri interjected. Part of him, some stubborn, hopeful, hopeless part of him, was desperate for Eli to tell them why he’d changed sides. He wanted Eli to tell him that it was because he meant something to him. He hesitated when Eli’s furious gaze landed on him. “I mean… at least, that’s what the motto said… and-- and that’s what you spray-painted on Mr. LaRusso’s car when you trashed the place!”

“ _And_ stole Mr. Miyagi’s medal of honor.” Sam narrowed her eyes. “Miguel told me about what happened. About all of it. You don’t _win_ honor by _stealing_ it, and you don’t gain trust with one apology.”

Demetri stole a glance at the ground as Eli opened his mouth, his chest heaving as he fought for the words to defend himself. Demetri didn’t like the version of Eli, the acid-spitting, barbed-tongued version, who demolished Lego sets and snapped arms and spent weeks making their lives hell, but… 

… he didn’t like seeing this conflicted, cornered, agitated one, either. He watched as Eli took another sharp breath in and ground his teeth before he stormed out of the dojo, walking around the back of the house. Demetri watched as he cursed to himself, before he disappeared out of sight.   


“I… don’t think he’s kidding, guys,” Miguel began, looking between them. “You heard Tory. She sounded pretty serious... She said that he was a traitor, that he needed to watch his back. And… Demetri, Hawk did protect you in that fight. If he was going to do something, he’d have done it by now, and… he’s… done some bad things, but that wasn’t him, that was Kreese in his head; he’s not a _bad_ guy.”

Demetri pushed a hand through his hair. Eli was already halfway out of the property by now. He looked back to Sam, and back to Miguel, and sighed-- part of him was reluctant to chase Eli down in the first place lest he risk a fist to the face. Even so…

“Fine. I’ll go talk to him. You two just… do whatever you’ve been doing.”

As Demetri walked out into the cool evening air, he allowed himself to think. He could count plenty of incidents where Hawk had tormented him and targeted him personally. There was the time that Hawk called him weak, the fight at the mall, the beer that Hawk poured over his head, the way that Hawk had hunted him down in the hallways of West Valley High, and not to mention the way that Hawk had broken his arm. But… he supposed he’d humiliated Hawk at that party. He supposed he’d kicked Hawk into a trophy case. Eli helped him win that fight.

And he supposed that he did just drive Eli away from Miyagi-Do-Eagle Fang karate by telling him that, essentially, he didn’t trust him. The majority of Demetri believed him, but there was some dark part of him, hunkered away somewhere, that didn’t believe he could trust Eli after all that he had done. It made him feel incredibly guilty, and he sighed, folding his arms across his chest as he walked.

The evening grass was full of dew alongside the building, and the faint hoot of an owl could be heard over a distant roar of traffic. Demetri’s heart hammered in his chest-- he didn’t see any sign of the Cobra Kai cretins anywhere, but he also wasn’t enthralled by the idea of being jumped, either. He chewed at the inside of his cheek as he passed by the front of the dojo, and took a slow breath in.

Sitting on the hood of one of the cars was Eli, somber and sulking. With the light of the moon, his (truly awful, in Demetri’s opinion) hair was but a spiked silhouette, and the rest of Eli didn’t look welcoming, either. As Demetri got closer, he could see the tense line of his friend’s jaw, the defensive hunch to his shoulders. Demetri took a deep breath and cleared his throat so that Eli would know that he was there. Immediately, Eli looked in his direction but scoffed slightly, shaking his head before looking away.

“Sitting here and staring at a fence isn’t what I’d _presume_ to be your favorite Friday night activity,” Demetri commented, pulling himself to a seat on the hood of the covered car. “But then again, what do I know what you like to do on Fridays? We really haven’t been talking a lot, and honestly, I don’t even know what you’ve been up to. Well… despite the _usual_ karate stuff.” He bit his lower lip. Eli had already looked away from him again, his chin ducked towards his chest. Seeing him like that drove a small splinter into the middle of Demtri’s chest. He nudged Eli lightly with his elbow, and to his dismay, didn’t miss the way that Eli glared at him. “Look. I’m sorry too. I got carried away back there. I just…” He rubbed absently at his arm. It ached slightly from the fighting of the evening. “It’s going to take all of us some time to… put the past behind us, Eli… I mean… what you did at Golf N’ Stuff, it... it really, really hurt, I mean, yeah, I cried like a baby the whole time, but… what hurt me the most wasn’t my arm itself, it…” He trailed off and looked up at the sky, as though he could find the right words to say. He watched the lights of a banking airplane as it turned to fly into LA. “It hurt because you were my friend. It hurt because… I knew that that wasn’t you. And the thing is, Eli, I was never… I was never scared of _you_. I was scared of losing my best friend to… whoever you were becoming.”

He looked back to Eli, who was looking away from him again, distant and unconsolable once more. Judging by the frown on his face, he felt awful. Demetri opened his mouth and then closed it again. “Neither of us have been good to each other. I just… I got upset back there because it’s… it’s really hard for me to sweep things under the rug with just one apology.”

Eli ground his teeth slightly, his hand curling into a fist over the hood of the car. Even here, Demetri could see the split skin of his knuckles crusted with dried blood. He took a deep breath, and looked up as his friend seemed to fight for the words to say.

“So you don’t believe me, then?” He snapped, as Demetri recoiled slightly. “Is that why you came out here? To tell me that it’s never going to work? Because I could have guessed that myself.”

A flicker of anger burned in Demetri’s chest. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. I just… I guess I want to know why you decided to quit Cobra Kai. You could have done that a long time ago. So… why now?”

Eli ran his hand over the cover of the car and looked up at the stars, his jaw set in a show of stubborn bravado. For a moment, he looked so pained that Demetri almost feared what would come next.

It was only moments later that Eli’s expression melted into one of bitter indifference. “I already told you that I’m _sorry_. Okay? That should be enough, so just… stop… stop being such a pussy.” 

The thing igniting inside of Demetri only grew hotter. The last thing he wanted was to get upset with Eli after they’d just worked together, after Eli had his back in a fight, but he couldn’t help it. He barked a dry, bitter laugh. “See, Eli, this is exactly the kind of crap I was talking about. Cut the tough-guy act already. Don’t you see where that’s gotten you? Your little ‘winning’ attitude is the reason why we’re even arguing about this in the first place, and--”

“My _attitude?”_ The venom in Eli’s voice was palpable. “My attitude was fine before you drove me out of your little dojo. If you don’t want me in your group, just tell me, because I’m really not in the mood to listen to you bitch at me. The important thing is that I dropped Cobra Kai, so cut the pussy attitude already before I change my mind.”

Demetri cursed softly beneath his breath. _“What_ is your problem? This macho B.S. might have helped you back when you were training with Kreese, but to me? It just makes you sound like the biggest asshole on the planet. Why is it so hard for you to just _tell_ me? Would it kill you to pull your head out of your ass for five minutes so that I could actually talk to you?”

The shove to his shoulder was harder than he expected. Demetri gasped slightly as Hawk pushed him roughly, turning to look at him with his heart hammering. Hawk pulled himself to his feet and glared at him, and for a moment, he was all unrecognizable again. Demetri stared at him incredulously as the other glared at him. 

“Fuck this. I don’t know why I even bothered anyways. It’s obvious that I’m not wanted here.” Eli turned to leave, and Demetri, struck by a moment of obliviousness, hurried after him, reaching for his friend’s wrist. 

“Eli, wait,” he began, but he was stopped by a shove to the ground, which landed him on his back in the dirt. “What the hell, man? I thought we were done with this!” Eli stepped closer to look at him, and suddenly, Demetri was struck by a wave of panic. He raised his arms to block any punches or kicks that were going to come his way, but when he opened his eyes, none came. Instead, what he saw was much more surprising and shook him to the core of his being.

Eli was crying, his face not contorted in rage, but with suppressed tears. Demetri watched as the mask that his friend had shaped for himself shattered, and was replaced by a tear that rolled down his bruised cheek. He was too shell-shocked to speak. The last time he’d seen Eli cry was freshman year of high school after Kyler had gotten after him, but something about this felt worse-- like it was something he wasn’t supposed to see. Demetri opened his mouth, but Eli was already looking away.

He sat up and brushed some of the dirt off of himself before leaning forward, unsure of what to do or say as Eli took a shuddering breath.

“I’m sorry, okay? For everything,” Eli began, as he stared over his head at something that Demetri wasn’t even sure was there. “I’m sorry about what I did at the party, and I’m sorry about the school-- I’m sorry about Mr. Miyagi’s medal, and I’m so _fucking_ sorry about your arm.” He swallowed, hard, and Demetri felt any anger inside of him dissipate as Eli sank down to sit across from him. “I left Cobra Kai because I didn’t… I didn’t like what it was turning me into.” He wiped at one of his eyes angrily with the heel of his hand. “I got lost when I was there, I… stole the money for Miguel, I… I hurt Brucks so badly that someone had to peel him off the floor, and I broke your arm. I was stupid for staying as long as I did. I just… I wanted to be someone more than the kid with the stupid lip. I thought Kreese could help me do that. I just didn’t realize it was turning me into a bully until I couldn’t face myself in the mirror.” His voice wavered slightly. “I’m so sorry. I was an asshole and a coward. But I don’t want to be an asshole anymore. I want to make things right. For Miguel, and for you, and for everyone else.” 

Demetri watched as Eli wiped at one of his eyes. Watching like this was almost painful, but when Eli met his eyes with that lost, broken expression, he felt something inside of him begin to shatter. “Hearing you cry like that after… after I did what I did, I... “ Eli whimpered slightly, and Demetri watched another stubborn tear roll down his face. “I was so… angry with myself. I’m scared that there’s no coming back from it, what I did. I’m scared that ruined everything with us and with Miguel, I’m scared that sensei Lawrence isn’t going to take me back-- I mean, I’m worse than Kreese, I’m--”

“Stop,” Demetri interjected, quietly, shaking his head. “Don’t… beat yourself up like that, Eli.” He scooted closer to his friend, placing a hand on one of his hunched shoulders. “You aren’t… worse than Kreese. I think that’s actually… pretty humanly impossible. So you made a few mistakes. I... did too. I shouldn’t have made fun of you in front of all those people, but… you aren’t a bad person.” Eli’s shoulder shook slightly beneath his hand as he ducked his chin and Demetri sighed, a heavy weight settling in his chest. He couldn’t sit back and do nothing, so he composed himself (and hoped that he wouldn’t be punched for this) before he wrapped his arms around Eli’s shoulders and hugged him. 

To his surprise, Eli dropped his temple to his shoulder and sobbed slightly against his shirt. Demetri was well aware of his heart kickstarting into a manic frenzy in the middle of his chest-- he could smell the product in Eli’s hair and feel hot tears creeping through his flannel. He took a slow, steadying breath and wrapped one of his arms around Eli’s back, rubbing it in what he hoped were soothing circles. He’d always been shit at comforting people-- his solution would have ordinarily been to watch a movie-- but he didn’t want Sam or Miguel to see this, and besides… it felt nice to hug his friend again. 

Now was not the time for him to remember the hopeless crush he had on Eli through most of middle school… and high school. 

“Hey, uh, man,” he began, breathlessly, as Eli sniffled into his shoulder, “Bro. Dude. Broski. You’re good. Okay? I believe you, and I… I’m really glad that you came around. I missed you.” 

Eli cleared his throat slightly and pulled back, nodding as he wiped his eyes. “Cool,” he managed. “I… missed you too, man.”

Demetri watched as Eli collected himself. He was thinking about a lot of things right now, the primary one of course being that he was relieved that Eli wasn’t crying anymore. The second of which was… he wondered what Eli’s mohawk would feel like beneath his fingers if he touched it. He also wondered how long they would be sitting in the dirt, and he wondered what Sam and Miguel were up to (and also wasn’t sure if he even wanted to know). He wondered if Eli thought about him like Demetri thought about him when they were apart, and he wondered if Eli had felt the same rush of energy that he had felt when they fought with their backs to one another. 

Now wasn’t the time to think about that, though.

“So…” Demetri began, “That was pretty badass, wasn’t it? Taking on those Cobra Kai assholes side-by-side? It sort of felt like an action movie, didn’t it?” 

To his relief, Eli laughed slightly. “I was going to say that it reminded me of when we teamed up to fight the dragon at the end of that D&D campaign.”

“Oh, so you remember the campaign. Huh. So if you aren’t too cool to remember good ol’ Dungeons and Dragons, why don’t we play a round together sometime, for old time’s sake? And don’t tell me that you’re too cool now for nerd shit. I know that you want to know what happens in the new season of Doctor Who.”

Eli looked down, his guilty expression telling all. “... I binge-watched it the night after the party.”

Demetri gasped. “You didn’t.” 

“I did, and you’re so right-- Thirteen is a _badass_.”

“Not as badass as we were tonight. You know what I think?”

Eli wiped at one of his eyes again as his gaze found Demetri’s once more. Demetri ignored the slight infestation of butterflies in the pit of his stomach as he tipped his head back and shouted to the stars. “Demetri and _Eliiii_ , binary _brooothers_ , back in _actionnnn_!” He laughed as Eli shoved him slightly, much less aggressively this time.

“How do I call you a loser in binary code?” He asked, but there was no way for Eli to hide the slight smile on his face. They both chuckled slightly before Eli looked back up for him, meeting his eyes. “Thanks. For everything.”

“Pssh. No problem. We have each other’s backs, remember?” Demetri pulled himself to his feet and reached out a hand for Eli to take. He helped his friend to his feet and shrugged his shoulders, all casual. “That’s sort of the whole point of being binary brothers, anyways-- you scratch my back, I scratch yours, that sort of thing--”

He trailed off when Eli wrapped his arms around him, holding him tightly in a hug. Demetri felt a jolt of electricity race up his spine before he gave in, and pulled Eli in for another hug. It had just dawned on him that he was taller than Eli, even with that ridiculous hair. It hadn’t been that way before Demetri had hit his growth spurt late into sophomore year. “Is this a thing?” He asked, as Eli pulled back from him again, “Do we hug?”

  
Eli scoffed slightly. “Don’t ruin it.” He pressed his lips together before he added, “Hey. Do you want to round up the others and order a pizza or something?” 

Demetri hesitated slightly. While that sounded fun, he was pretty sure that he didn’t want to interrupt a makeout session between Miguel and Sam. He also selfishly was excited to have Eli to himself for once. “You know,” he began, “It’s… late. And Sam and Miguel are sort of… occupied right now, I think.” He added, before Eli could interject with a snarky comment about his friend, “Why don’t we go see if Sonic is open, or something? Catch up? You know. Unless you think you’re too cool to talk to me in public, or something.” 

“Too cool? No way. You’re my binary bro. Besides... “ Eli smiled slightly. “I’m starving. There’s a cheeseburger and a milkshake calling my name right now.”

A wave of relief washed over Demetri as he met Eli’s eyes. “Cool.” He nudged his friend. “Well, why don’t we just pop back in there and tell them that we’re going to go grab a bite? And… maybe… we can watch a movie or something when we’re done.”

Eli nudged him back. Demetri was much happier to see the smile on his friend’s face. “Yeah-- yeah, I would like that.”

As Demetri walked back to the others alongside Eli, he privately thought that this was the best night he’d had in a long time. 


End file.
